New Super Easy Baby Blanket

One of our most popular projects over the years has been the Super Easy Baby Blanket. When I made it over four years ago, I was newly pregnant and full of dreams for the tiny baby who would be wrapped up inside. Now, that that baby is old enough to write his name, we thought it was time for an update to this wonderfully straightforward pattern!

Faye, whom you may know (and love!) from shopping at our store, suggested this time trying the Super Easy Baby Blanket with Koigu’s Kersti Merino Crepe. Since in the last few years Faye, too, has become a mother, she thought Kersti’s ultra springy loftiness would be perfect not just for a soft and cozy blanket, but also for a comfy play mat.

Plus, since Faye is one of Purl Soho’s very first employees, she has spent nearly a decade with Koigu, contemplating its vast array of colors, playing with combinations and developing favorites. So she already had up her sleeve a beautiful summertime palette that starts with the blues of the cool ocean, passes into the bright light of the horizon and then rises to the hot flames of the sun. Spectacular!

If you know how to cast on, knit and bind off, you’re ready to start your own Super Easy Baby Blanket! And if you’re curious about the original, you can check it out right here. Enjoy both!

Tie a slip-knot with both ends of a skein, and use the thread from the outside of the skein as your “thumb” strand, and you never have to measure the tail or worry about whether the tail is long enough. After you’ve cast on (don’t count the slip-knot), cut the outer strand, leaving enough to weave in the end later. On the first row, drop the slip-knot when you get to it.

Thanks for writing in! Good news, you can modify the size of this blanket easily! If you are using the same yarn that we used here, you will be getting 5 stitches per inch. You will multiply this by the number of stitches wide that you want to knit the blanket and cast on that number. You will also need to purchase more yarn. If you are making a throw size of roughly 40 x 50 inches, you will need about 3.5-4 times that amount of yarn as we used here.

Thanks for commenting! That would absolutely work out. With a second kit you will have two skeins worth of each color and with that cast on number your blanket will be about 32 inches wide. I think that will be an awesome sized blanket!

I’d like to make this blanket for a newborn baby. Is the pattern too large? If I should make it smaller, can you tell me how many stitches to cast on? I am using one color for the entire blanket. How many skeins should I buy? Thank you for your help.

Thanks for the comment! I would make it in the original size. It will be a little big for the baby at first but this size should last well into childhood and it’s always best to get as much longevity as possible after putting in all the work to knit it!! Just follow the pattern as written which requires 7 skeins of the Koigu Kersti which you can browse here; https://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/item/870-Koigu-Wool-Designs-Kersti-Merino-Crepe-Solids
I hope this helps and feel free to write back if you have anymore questions!

The finished dimensions of this blanket are 24 x 28 inches, which makes it just right for most babies. If you’d like your blanket even smaller for a preemie, you could cast on fewer stitches and knit each stripe the width you’d like one-seventh of the blanket’s finished length to be.

I hope this information is helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions and thank you for this one!
Whitney

I really love your easy baby blanket and just came to the one before last color 2171,5. Unfortunately this yarn consists of only one ply, while all the others are three ply. What do I do now? I was so excited to finish the blanket this weekend. Please write back. Thank you!

I am brand new to knitting. I purchased a 24in 9mm circular needle per suggestion at the yarn store I went to along with 110 yds. of bulky weight MadelineTosh wool yarn. Would it be too much to ask how I can amend this pattern to fit what I have? I’m trying to knit a baby blanket for my son. Thank you!

So frustrated with this Koigu yarn! This is the second time I have made this blanket. Many of the skeins I am using this time do not produce the number of ridges that I was able to get on the first blanket I made. I can barely get 18 ridges from some skeins. I am a long time consistent knitter so I can only conclude that these skeins are not as long as they claim to be. I am posting this as a warning to others who may attempt to get 20 ridges from each skein. I am now going to abandon this project after having bought two replacement skeins hoping that I just had one or two that had been incorrectly measured. It appears to be a problem with the more recently bought Koigu skeins in general. So disappointed and a waste of money.

Hello Cathleen,
We feel your pain! The beauty of Koigu is that no two skeins are alike, but that does make for some frustration when the skeins aren’t equal in yardage! This isn’t an uncommon occurrence, so I’ve forwarded your concerns to our customer service team who will contact you and work something out so you’re happy with your blanket!
Thanks for writing in and expressing your concerns! -Alyson

I’m fairly new to knitting and I have a few questions. When you say long tail cast on what does that mean? Also, how do you switch colors? I guess what do you do with the end of the previous color before starting the next color? I hope that makes sense.

Welcome to the knitting community! Long tail cast on is one method of creating the stitches at the very start of a project. Switching colors is actually fairly straight forward, you just want to make sure to leave a long enough tail in order to weave them in at the end of your project. There are tutorials for all of these techniques here: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/knit/tutorials/ Best of luck! -Alyson

I’m a little confused about what you’re asking, adding that border wouldn’t change the gauge of the pattern, but it would change the size of each stripe. Since you’ll be using more yarn on the borders, you’ll just have slightly skinnier stripes. Sounds like a great added detail! Enjoy! -Alyson

Yes you will need to roll it into a ball before you use the yarn to prevent any tangles! If you purchase yarn from us, please never hesitate to write in the notes section of your order that you would like them wound up and our warehouse team would be glad to do so!

If you want to do it at home, I would recommend unwinding the skein into a loop and keeping it taut either on your knees, on the back of a chair, or having a friend help you hold it up while you wind it into a ball by hand. There’s nothing more charming than a hand wound yarn ball!

Yes you can absolutely transition this pattern into moss stitch. I would recommend casting on an odd number of stitches so that you can always start each row with a K1 and not interrupt the moss pattern. Best of luck! -Alyson

Hi Molly
Sorry for all the questions, I’m still new to knitting. If I’m knitting the blanket in moss stitch (121 stitches as recommended by Alyson) to get the nice neat edge do I slip the first stitch on to my right hand needle then purl the next continuing to knit and purl to the end of the row and finishing with a knit stitch before repeating the same on the next row?
Thanks!

Thank you for your question. To get the nice, neat edges on this blanket you’ll slip the first stitch of every row as if to knit with the yarn in back. This means that you’ll keep your yarn pulled toward the back of the work and then insert your right hand needle into the first stitch as if to knit, slipping it from the left hand needle to the right hand needle. By slipping the stitch and not working it, you are creating an elongated knitted edge. I hope this clears things up! Best of luck on the project!

I absolutely love this blanket, but I would like to double it in size to use as a throw blanket. Do you have recommendations on how to alter the pattern to accommodate this change? Would it just be a matter of casting on double the number of stitches and buying twice as much yarn?

Hello Theresa!
That’s totally do-able! I would simply follow this pattern instead: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2013/09/22/super-easy-blankets/, since its already written for a worsted weight yarn! It makes a slightly larger blanket, but it still uses 7 skeins and it has the right gauge for the yarn you want to use.

The best way to figure out how many to cast on is to do a gauge swatch. Knit an (approximately) 4 X 4 inch square in the stitch pattern you’ll be using on the needles you’ll be using. From there you can see how many stitches per inch you are getting and that will tell you how many to cast on. For example, if you are getting 3 stitches per inch for your gauge swatch you will need to cast on 60 stitches to get something that is 20-inches wide.

Thanks for writing in! For this blanket, and all versions of the Super Easy Baby Blanket, we use all of the yarn in each skein. In the case of this version, the Koigu Kersti comes in 114 yard skeins so the total yardage would be 798 yards.

I do hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any questions!
-Cassy

Im doing something like this for my son. But instead of casting on 120 stitches and doing it all as one piece I have been casting on 30 stitches and making more like a wide strip, and then joining them using some of the remaining yarn at the end of the skein I used and a yarn needle. each strip ends up being about 36 inches long and 7 inches wide. Overall size of the blanket will depend on how many strips I do. My son is 3 and chose the colors he wanted and carries what i have done so far around with him telling everyone that it is his blankie.

Thank you for writing in! I am sorry to hear that your blanket is coming out sort! If you’d like to add another blue, I recommend 2130 and I think if you placed the 2130 between the 2171.5 and the 1043 it would look lovely. If you’re not into the 2130, give our NY store a call at (212) 420-8796. They have more colors in stock than we have online and they can give you some fantastic recommendations.

Thank you for writing in! For this project we used the Koigu Merino Crepe which is similar to a sport weight yarn. The Koigu Premium Merino wool is closer to a fingering weight. You can use it to make this blanket, you’ll just need to adjust your cast-on number. To do this, make a gauge swatch and then you will multiply the stitches per inch by the the width of this blanket. So, for example, if you get 8 stitches to the inch: 8 x 24 = 192 stitches to cast on.

So sorry this is not in stock online! I think you should try calling the New York store and asking if they have the kit in stock. It’s worth a shot! If they don’t have it then we can put you on a call list to contact you when this comes back in.

I know you are out of this kit online. I was able to source the Koigu Kersti Merino Crepe at a few other places online and able to get every color EXCEPT 1043 (dark blue). Is there a different (but similar) yarn brand I could use that could work for that last color? I can’t find Koigue Kersti 1043 anywhere. Thank you!

Thanks for writing us! I’d be glad to offer a suggestion for a different color but I think that you should also contact the NY store to see if they have 1043 in stock. If you wish to replace 1043 with a different color of Kersti, I recommend 1045, 1003, 2130 or even 1533 would look really pretty even though it’s not blue. I hope you like some of these suggestions!

I’ve been looking for a pattern for a blanket for my daughter heading to college. She’s a California beach girl heading to the cold northeast, so I thought this would be perfect to remind her of beach sunsets. To make this in a comfortable throw blanket size, would I cast on about double the stiches and use about 4 times the yarn or maybe more?

Thanks for writing in and what a wonderful idea! A throw is usually 60×60″, but if you cast on double for this blanket you’ll reach approximately 48″ wide. I think that’s a good size for a throw too. I would, however, buy 5x the yarn because 4x the yarn won’t achieve the length you need. Good luck on the project! I know your daughter will love it.

I would like to see the original Super Easy Baby Blanket, primarily for the colors used, i.e., are there four yellow/gold to two blue? What hues were used? I believe I have seen it in the past, however, the link given with this page is not longer working. May I please see the original?

Thank you for writing in. Click here to see the original blanket. It is the first post in the knit blanket sections. We don’t carry Alchemy Temple anymore, but the Koigu Kersti is a good substitute. Let me know how it goes!

Just finished this baby blanket and immersed it in cool water with the insert you provided to avert color running. Thank goodness I did the oranges first without immersing the rest of the blanket. The oranges never stopped running despite many water changes. So what does this imply for washing once it has actually been used? I am feeling quite uneasy. Solutions?

Thanks for writing in! Sorry you are having this problem! Unfortunately, this brand runs a lot on account of the hand dyed process. I think that if you do a vinegar bath on the orange part, you might be able to stop the running. This entails that you fill your sink/basin with cold water and add a tablespoon of white vinegar per gallon. You can never overdose on the white vinegar so don’t worry if you don’t know how many gallons you have in the sink. Let us know how it goes!

I purchased the kit and it says to wash the yarn with the shout color catcher, the yarn is suppose to be machine washable. Can I put this yarn in the washing machine on delicate in a bag and wash the like colors together to make sure they don’t bleed and then put them in the dryer on low to make sure they dry throughly? I’ve never washed yarn before I want to make sure I don’t ruin it (I also don’t want to wash all the yarn by hand if I can avoid it).

Thanks for writing us. First of all, this yarn is not entirely machine washable. People have washed it in the machine without a problem, but it really depends on how gentle your machine is. Also, you’ll want to hand wash the yarn before using it. Prepare a large bowl or a few separate bowls and let the yarn soak with the color catcher. Squeeze the skeins dry and hang to dry before winding. Best of luck!

Thank you for writing in! You can substitute the Manos de Uruguay Silk Blend yarn, however it will give you a different gauge than the Kersti. I highly recommend making a gauge swatch before you begin and adjusting the pattern according to your swatch. Check out our tutorial on Swatching for Gauge. If you have any questions please let us know!

I just finished this blanket (from your kit, so the yarn was exactly as in the pattern), and hand-washed it as gently as I could… but it required a lot of rinsing out because the orange ran a lot. As a result, the finished blanket stretched out a lot 🙁 Any suggestions on getting it closer to its original shape, or is this irreversible? It’s not terrible, just not what it looked like when I was knitting it, or what yours looks like finished.

I now see elsewhere that you recommend washing the yarn before knitting. When I purchased the kit over the phone, I was asked if I wanted the yarn wound, and I said sure. Why would they do that if yarn needed to be washed before using? I don’t remember seeing any instructions in my kit by the way, just the yarn. There was no color catcher in my kit either (purchased sometime last year). I guess I’ll be getting more yarn and redoing the project, though it’s already late… disappointed.

Thank you for writing us. I am so sorry that the color ran on your blanket! That is such a shame. Sometimes hand dyed yarns aren’t as colorfast as machine dyed ones. If you lay the blanket flat and steam it, it might shrink a bit. Let it lay flat until dry and repeat this until it’s back in shape. As for winding the yarn, we offer that as a courtesy. However, with hand dyed yarns, I prefer to set the dye in a water and white vinegar bath before winding to ensure that the color won’t run. Again, truly sorry about this experience!

Hi well once again I discovered another blanket I have fallen in love with but it’s a baby blanket vs a throw. I’d like to find these treasures in larger sizes and ? If the Kersti super easy baby blanket could be upsized and what would be the necessary increase in yarn? Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment! It all depends on how long and wide you want to make your throw blanket. At the suggested gauge in the pattern you could get a blanket roughly 48×56″ if you doubled the pattern. Let us know your thoughts!

Hi. I have question regarding yarn. I see several patterns that I like but this one is simple and clean. Can I use the worsted cotton yarn instead? I also like the four points blanket. This blanket will be heading to a warm climate so I like the idea of cotton. Thank you

I love this color palate, but the Mom I am making this for is a little more subdued in her tastes. Do you have any other color combinations? Primarily, I would like to substitute for the top 3 colors and leave the bottom yellow, blues, etc.

Thanks for writing in! For the Kersti version of this blanket, we only have one color palette listed here but we are happy to help you with another color palette if you give us some color ideas. What colors would work best for the mom in question? For this version, are you looking for just blues and yellows? I am happy to make some recommendations based on what colors you think she will like!

I’m just about to start on this blanket. I note that you suggest washing with a color catcher to avoid yarn colors bleeding. Maybe a stupid question but does this mean washing yarn before knitting up or after the blanket is complete? Thanks!

Hello Celia,
Thank you for reaching out! Not a stupid question at all. For best results prepare a large bowl or a few separate bowls and let the yarn soak with the color catcher. Squeeze the skeins dry and hang to dry before winding. Best of luck!
-Marilla